Frightened, trying not to move a muscle, he shifted his gaze towards Zen, who looked rather cold. He
saw nothing on his face but heard him snorting. Immediately after that, Zen pulled his sword back.
Except for the fact that the sword had injured his arm, not a single wound had been made on his body
by Zen. He was completely intact elsewhere. The Streamer Sword had been fairly sharp but even so,
when Zen pulled it back from Jerrison's skin, no blood dripped off. Even the wound left on Jerrison's
arm was remarkably small. It wasn't until after a long while that a few drops of blood trickled.
It was mere a minor injury for a nature creature. Initially, Jerrison had thought that his death at the
hands of Zen was certain. After all, who would have spared one's enemy in such a situation? But it was
totally beyond his expectations that Zen would pull his punches. Jerrison was completely confused
about why Zen had let him off the hook.
After Zen took his Streamer Sword back, he turned around and made another move with his sword.
"Chop upwards."
At that very moment, Merk's machete was shining with an intense light; a light which felt gloomy and
terrifying despite its radiance.
"Bang!"
The bright silver light on Zen's Streamer Sword, which looked like a streak of meteors, was passing
over the sky, interlaced with the light on Merk's machete. At the moment that the two lights converged,
the wails and the howls became more sonorous than before. Immediately, a black shadow of a skull
head started floating around the light of Merk's machete. Its mouth was wide open, and with its fangs
showing, it was staring ferociously at Zen, as if it had sworn to mangle him.
But the light on Zen's Streamer Sword was extremely intense. It was interlaced and fused only for a
short while and soon enough, the dazzling light that Merk's machete had emitted was shattered into
infinite small fragments like confetti by Zen's radiance.
After the light of Merk's machete collapsed into fragments, it scattered away in all directions. Due to its
effects, the ground around them which had been originally flat suddenly got full of bumps.
With the Streamer Sword swinging arbitrarily in his hand, Zen approached Merk step by step.
Merk's face was betraying his flustered emotions now.
Just now, he had adopted his best striking technique. In applying this technique, the "ghostlike wails
and wolf-like howls" were emanated to threaten and scare his opponent, which would render him less
likely to defend himself. Apart from this outstanding technique, he had also made the ghostly machete
all by himself. When he used his refinement methods in combination with this ghostly machete, Merk
was capable of even challenging others with higher levels of cultivation.
And perhaps Merk was not as good as Jerrison at refining weapons, but his fighting capacity was still
absolutely recognizable among weapon refiners.
Nevertheless, just now, Zen had merely swung his sword once by his most fundamental
swordsmanship but the power that he had yielded and the defense he had put up had been deadly and
mighty.
All warriors were required to cultivate different skills at the very beginning of their cultivation, including
arts of fist duels, basic knife skills and fundamental swordsmanship... It was not until they grew up that
they could choose what skills they would focus on during their cultivation dependent upon their strong
points. Although Merk had been devoted to his life path as a weapon refiner, he still had certain
knowledge about basic swordsmanship.
Thus, he was certain that the swordsmanship that Zen had adopted against him was only a basic skill.
Hence, he judged that Zen wasn't used to employing swords.
If so, Zen must have harnessed some hidden skills that he had mastered, as he had been able to
confront with and defeat Merk, merely by employing very fundamental moves.
By weighing all factors, Merk deduced that he might be no match for Zen...
As this idea came over to Merk, his brain totally went out of control. At this moment, all he could think
of was escaping.
But as soon as he threw his ghostly machete away in an attempt to flee, Zen exclaimed, "Hey! I have
already spared the life of that guy behind you, so I will naturally not kill you. Besides, do you think you
can run away in this situation?"
Merk stopped immediately as soon as he heard Zen's words. To be honest, they sounded quite
plausible. As Zen had said, Merk was in no situation to flee away based on his current strengths even
though he strongly intended to run away. Just now, Zen could have directly killed Jerrison when he had
stabbed his sword at him. However, neither of them was dead. Initially, Merk was rather confused about
how the pair of them were alive in such a critical situation. At last, he realized that it was Zen who had
pulled his punches.
Zen was not a philanthropist, but a warrior. For warriors, it was considered a taboo to be kind to their
enemies, since they wouldn't be kind in return. Zen was quite clear that he would most likely be
imprisoned, questioned, and interrogated closely about the secrets on how to condense fairy weapons
if he failed to defeat Merk and Jerrison today.
And finally, he would be turned into a dead corpse and buried on a secluded hilltop whether he
disclosed the secrets to them or not. As time passed by, he would be forgotten by the world.
Zen definitely would not have gone easy on them if this battle had taken place outside the Cloud Sect.
In his opinion, anyone who dared to take advantage of him deserved to be killed whoever he or she
was.
But after all, Merk and Jerrison were masters in the Cloud Sect. And many people knew that Zen had
come to the Quenching Peak. If Zen killed them today, he would cause considerable troubles to Aura
and himself, especially if the Cloud Sect investigated their deaths and found out the truth.
"I have spared your lives, only because you are masters in the Cloud Sect, although I badly wish to kill
the pair of you, you black sheep!" Zen flatly insulted Merk and Jerrison. After a moment of pause, he
added, "I have spared your lives today, so I think it is best if you understand one thing now. Shut up
and order your disciples not to gossip about here and there!"
If Merk and Jerrison hadn't gotten this near-death experience in today's battle with Zen, it would have
been difficult for anyone to shut them up and prevent them from spreading any rumors.
But as masters in the Cloud Sect, the two of them had a very important reason to keep quiet. Today,
they had disgraced themselves. So, they were far less willing to let anyone know about how badly they
had been defeated.
As soon as Zen ordered them, Jerrison immediately responded, "Please, don't hurt us! Rest assured
that we will not gossip about what happened today! No one will know about today's events."
"All that group of people are my disciples. I will make them shut up. Then, they will not dare to reveal
anything about what happened here today," Merk promised too.
Zen flatly smiled at their promises and stated, "I am just reminding you. It won't matter that much even
if others come to know about today. From this moment on, you should look out for yourselves."
There were a thousand people on the Quenching Peak, and hundreds of people had witnessed Zen's
refinement of fairy weapon. By this moment, all the disciples of the Quenching Peak knew about that.
Zen didn't believe at all that Merk and Jerrison could really prevent so many people from revealing
such a big secret.
It was only after Zen had left that Jerrison wiped the sweat on his forehead. They had been extremely
lucky that Zen had some misgivings when he was deciding whether to kill Merk and Jerrison or not.
Without his decision to do otherwise, Zen would have killed them without doubt. Besides, from his
words, Jerrison had realized that Zen had let Merk and him off the hook not purely because of his
misgivings. Deep in his mind, Jerrison felt that Zen didn't take the two of them seriously.
"Nowadays, all these young people are rather cruel," Merk remarked. He was picking up his ghostly
machete from the ground. He hadn't recovered from the battles panic until now and it could be heard in
his voice.
"You are wrong. It's wrong to say that all young people are cruel," Jerrison responded while shaking his
head in disagreement. Except for the fact that he lagged behind Merk in terms of fighting capacity, he
was much better than Merk in regards to his knowledge, experience and foresight. After some further
thought for organizing his words, he continued, "Today's young people are still as cruel as before. But
now, another cruel man has joined our Cloud Sect."
Zen had the strength and the capability to challenge Merk and Jerrison, both of whom had reached the
seventh grade of nature level. Furthermore, he had defeated the two of them with ease and
carelessness. His strength was such that they even saw his attacks coming. What was more
unbelievable was the fact that Zen was capable of condensing and refining fairy weapons. So far,
perhaps not a single figure like Zen had ever been seen in the Cloud Sect since its establishment.
"Hmm, what if he is cruel? He is just an outer disciple. I will surely play some tricks on him if I get a
chance!" Merk swore in an angry, grudging tone.
However, Jerrison shook his head, sneered and responded, "Play tricks on him? You? Hehehe, Merk. I
don't mean to blame you, but I have to say that you were defeated rather badly by him just now. Zen
just didn't want to haggle with us. But do you still plan to play some tricks on him? If so, I think you will
gain nothing but seek death!"
Merk was still unwilling to submit, but he spoke in a lower and lower tone. Like Jerrison, he also
understood that men like Zen were sure to make some outstanding achievements one day. He should
be grateful since Zen had not been so serious with him. After clearing his throat, he responded, "I was
just complaining. However shrewd that guy is, he is not a clairaudient, so is it possible for him to hear
what I have said about him?"
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